Rescue workers and city officials calculate the last load of New York World Trade Center debris will be hauled out in early to mid-June, and a ceremony is being planned to mark the completion of the work.
Less than 90,000 tons of debris remains at the bottom of the giant crater in lower Manhattan after nearly nine months of round-the-clock toil since Sept. 11, when the twin towers were reduced to 1.7 million tons of burning rubble 10 stories high.
"Everyone felt it was going to take a year or more to do," said Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter whose son's remains were found in December. "Once we started working and we had the best winter on record, everything worked to the families' benefit, and that's why we're up to where we are and we can put a close on this sooner than we thought."
Representatives from the Fire Department, the Police Department, the mayor's office and other agencies plan to meet on Thursday to settle on the final day and decide how to commemorate it.
One date being considered is June 11, which would neatly mark nine months of work since Sept. 11.
(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2002)
